
This History of the .40S&W

The .40S&W cartridge owes its existence to one of the most tragic incidents
in American law enforcement, the famed "Miami Shoot-out" of 1986, in which
two FBI agents were killed and five others wounded. Early evaluations by
the Bureau placed much of the blame on the handguns and ammunition issued
to the agents, and so an extensive study was undertaken to choose new
equipment.

The FBI's Firearms Training Unit (FTU) tested a wide variety of handgun
ammunition and finally chose the relatively new (at the time) 10mm as the
round which would best "physiologically incapacitate" a person.

However, after early testing with then-current 10mm ammunition, the FTU
determined that many agents, especially female agents, had a difficult time
controlling the powerful recoil of the 10mm. Other complaints included an
extremely loud report, blinding muzzle flash, etc. So, after further
testing, the FTU created a new specification for the 10mm, called the "10mm
Lite" or "FBI Lite 10mm," which was a 180grain bullet traveling at 950fps.
FTU's chief, John Hall, asked Federal to download their ammunition to this
more acceptable level.

When Smith & Wesson's Steve Melvin heard about the downloaded 10mm, he
realized that the same bullet could be fired at the same velocity from a
cartridge which had been shortened to remove the empty space created by the
smaller amount of powder used in the 10mm Lite.

This smaller round would fit into the magazines and grip frames of existing
9mm handguns, providing a number of benefits. The guns themselves could be
smaller, and therefore more concealable. The ammunition capacity would be
significantly higher than most 10mm (or .45) handguns of the same
approximate size. Most importantly, only minor engineering and
manufacturing changes needed to be made to extant 9mm handguns to make them
accept the .40-caliber load.

Smith & Wesson got together with Winchester's ammunition division at Olin
and began development of the .40S&W cartridge. In fact, Olin was ready to
announce the .40S&W cartridge before Smith was ready to announce the
availability of its first "forty" handgun, the 4006. At the 1990 SHOT show
in Las Vegas, Smith and Olin announced the pending availability of the
.40-caliber cartridge and the 4006.

However, Gaston Glock, whose namesake firearm firm was also present in
force at the SHOT show, saw the .40 ammo and guns and realized that his 9mm
Models 17 and 19 could be modified quickly and easily to fire the new
cartridge. In fact, Glock beat Smith & Wesson to market with its Models 22
and 23.

The FBI later upped its 10mm Lite spec from 950fps to 980fps (which,
coincidentally I'm sure, pushed it over the 175 IPSC "Major" power factor),
and the .40S&W load proved equally capable of delivering that level of
performance.

In just six years, the .40S&W has gone from a drawing board design to the
cartridge demanded in 70% of American law enforcement handgun procurements.
Oddly enough, the FBI has not yet adopted the .40S&W, and currently issues
the same 9mm handguns which were initially blamed for the failure in Miami,
albeit with a different brand of ammunition.

Much thanks go to Dean Speir and Peter Alan Kasler for the information they
provided. So, uh, "much thanks, guys!"



This is the Unofficial .40S&W Web Page version 1.1
Last updated 1/19/96
Send E-mail to Todd Louis Green at ZenWolf@cris.com
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